Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers handled the Bulls on Tuesday and nothing more. Lonzo Ball, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma all scored between sixteen and nineteen points in a 107–102 win.

There will be a LeBron James announcement today (Jan. 16) but surely the Lakers would have said something sooner if he were to be ready to play in this game. It’s fair to assume he’s going to miss this one, too.

So it’s hard to imagine Los Angeles having much of a chance to win this game. The offense is going to struggle to generate open looks in the half court, nor create many fast breaking opportunities against a Thunder defense that is terrific at stifling the ‘break.

Los Angeles could, however, play slow with OKC and defend the Thunder equally as hard. If Russell Westbrook is missing a lot, as he’s been liken to do lately, this game could stay low and close.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Despite giving up 45 points in the second quarter on Tuesday in Atlanta, Oklahoma City took a small lead into the fourth quarter.

That’s when the Hawks dropped a second 45-point quarter on what has been the best team defense in the NBA’s regular season so far.

Trae Young, Alex Len and John Collins combined for 74 points. Four other Hawks had double-figures, including Omari Spellman, who recently spent some time in the G-League after several starts early in the season.

Nerlens Noel, Alex Abrines and Andre Roberson remain out for the Thunder. None have a timetable of their expected return. As a result, Westbrook, Steven Adams, Paul George and Jerami Grant are logging heavy minutes. Westbrook’s 36 on Tuesday night were the fewest that any of the four played.

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